Based on the philosophical and practice principles of the Tao I laid out in my last post, I am offering here just some simple exercises of play I discovered over the years, born out of my own, daily, mundane activities.

The first I developed while still living and pursuing a highly successful professional life in Boston, where I studied with my SiFu in the Taoist meditative, martial and medicinal arts. He was just one of many I knew there, but he stood prominently at the core of my studies for over 10 years.

The second was born out of my explorations in an environment in which I chose to live at a more humble, simple and naturally-oriented way long after I left the confining perks and financial contrivances of my “professional” life. Trade-offs always occur in our choices and I gave away the prestige of position for a more authentically personal one. Yes, I now live at an economic level far below the one I left, but I inhabit a place and time whose riches I have not even begun to mine fully. The thrill of a larger reward of experience now is far and away worth the “sacrifice” I made to do so.

Like the children depicted here, play is spontaneous and individually invented. Here, a group of boys has decided to play a game of cricket in between abandoned railroad tracks. Who knows why they chose this venue over any others – that’s just the serendipity of humanity and that serendipity should be honored and appreciated. It is what makes us all human: whose core base I assume to be curiosity, inventiveness and enthusiasm for being in the world to our fullest extent. These boys are obviously, completely, inside their game and should be applauded for all of the originality that led them to this moment, in this captured photo.

I met a woman this morning with whom I had a very long, interesting conversation – the kind that drifts in and around and through many subjects, has no boundaries regarding strict schedules and no need to rush off somewhere else and which leaves us with an internal sense of renewed creativity and curiosity about our own small worlds. Such talks inspire our positive sense of light and excitement and an expanded state of possibilities.

This is why I don’t spend much time with busy, “heavily-scheduled” people. Their busyness is, ultimately, a bore, engaged in by superficial boors. I’d rather spend time with something and/or someone outside of time constraints, a bit nutty and allowing for things to naturally unfold, just like this woman and the man (the fabulous Jackie Chan, master of both the ridiculously slapstick and the beautiful martial artistry of life) here in the photo. These are my people.